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Sunday, 2 June 2013

Brighton

Brighton, a town in East
Sussex, originally the fishing village of Brightelmston, began its
transformation into England's leading seaside resort with the arrival in 1753
of Dr Richard Russell, author of A Dissertation on the Use of Sea Water in
Diseases of the Glands. Under his guidance bathing became fashionable, and
soon 'dippers', such as the celebrated Martha Gunn, made a profession of
plunging the rich in the waves.

Prince George, later George IV suffered from gout
due to his highly spiced diet. For many years he bathed in the Brighton sea
to try to cure this.

Prince George had a villa built in Brighton on the site of a farmhouse. In 1812 he engaged John Nash to enlarge it into the Royal Pavilion, extravagant "Indian" and "Chinese" interiors. Many people attacked his extravagance.

In 1821 Dean Mahomed, the owner
of the first ever Indian restaurant in England, opened some baths on
Brighton sea front. He claimed he was ‘the inventor of the Indian Medicated
Vapour Baths…by whom the Art of Shampooing was first introduced into England in
1784.’ King George IV gave him a royal warrant and anointed him
Shampooing Surgeon to The King.

Britain’s first
seaside pleasure pier, the Chain Pier at Brighton, opened in 1823.

Britain’s first express
commuter train oped in 1841. It run between London and Brighton taking 105 minutes to complete
the 59-mile journey.

In 1871, Harry J. Lawson, of
Brighton, made the first rear-chain-driven "safety" cycle. The pedal
moved the back wheel by means of a chain on sprockets.

Volk’s Electric Railway opened in 1879. running along the Brighton seafront, it was the world’s first public electric railway.

The Duke of York's
Picture House opened in Brighton in 1910. It is now the oldest continually operating cinema in
Britain.

Britain’s first legal
casino of modern times opened at the Metropole in Brighton in 1962.

Harry Bidwen of Brighton
divorced his wife at the age of 101 in 1980, having waited until all their children
were dead.

More than two million Britons
are insomniacs, Londoners get the least
rest, with just 54 per cent managing the UK average of seven hours. In
Brighton, 67 per cent get seven hours.